Zoe Hart is a girl with a plan. That plan is focused around her dedication to become a doctor -
more specifically, a cardiothoracic surgeon like her father. As she told Dr. Harley Wilkes , who
sought her out at her graduation to offer her a position in his practice, "Our last name is
Hart so it's pre-destined". She thinks her life is perfect - until four years later, it all comes
crashing down. Her boyfriend, who did his residency at the same hospital as Zoe
dumps
her because she would rather talk about work than his day. Also, she fails to get the cardiothoracic
fellowship. To Zoe's indignation, her Chief recommends she spend the next twelve months
as a general practitioner, and warns her she needs to improve her bedside manner, to see
people as people, not puzzles to solve. Unfortunately for Zoe, there are no general practitioner
positions available in New York City. Out of viable options, Zoe stumbles across a postcard
from Harley Wilkes - who had continually sent her offers for a position at his practice over
the year, and decides to accept. Upon arriving in Bluebell, Alabama, she discovers
Harley
Wilkes had died four months previously, and that he had mysteriously left his practice to her.
But this wasn't without it's complications- Harley had left Zoe his half of the practice, which
he shared with Dr. Brick Breeland , who had long been eager to have the whole practice
to himself. After a rough start in Bluebell, rubbing nearly all the residents the wrong way,
drunkenly making out with Wade Kinsella after faultily signing off on Old Man Jackson's eye
exam and butting heads with the the Breeland clan, Zoe is ready to return to New York with her
mother, and leave Bluebell a memory when Mrs. Hattenbarger reveals the answer to the
mystery of why Harley Wilkes would have left Zoe his practice- he was her father.

Wade Kinsella, Bluebell's resident bad boy with a heart.
Wade is friends with the Mayor, Lavon Hayes,
and lives in the gatehouse on the mayor's estate,
sharing a generator with the carriage house, where
Dr. Zoe Hart has recently moved in. He also works
as bartender at the Rammer Jammer. His father, 'Crazy'
Earl Kinsella is the 'town drunk', whom Wade is forced to
sing down each month when he gets cashes his government
check and gets drunk, threatening to jump off a building.